Final Fantasy 7: A Second Chance
by FLUFFYTIGER
Summary: Cloud from a year after Dirge Of Cerberus, wakes up on top of the train that started his journey to save the world 4 years ago. Full summary inside.
1. Dreaming Reality

This came to me through a dream. I don't know if anyone else has done something similar to this story, I hope that haven't as I would like this to be original.

Cloud from a year after Dirge Of Cerberus, wakes up on top of the train that started his journey to save the world 4 years ago. Can having knowledge and skills that he didn't poses back then, help to change the past and improve the future?**

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**Final Fantasy 7: A Second Chance.**

**Chapter 1** **Dreaming Reality**

The train buckled and hissed as it came to a stop. With in seconds two people jump off and quickly take out the two guards before they can lift their rifles or call for help. Another man jumps off the train, landing heavily as he has no grace from his big bulky body. He signals to the top of the train and waits for the final member of his team to make his appearance. But his signal is not received as the person is in a sleep like daze. The man calls out hoping to get the guys attention. "Hay Cloud! Get your spiky butt down here! We have to move quickly!"

The man, now called Cloud, wakes up from his sleeping like state. He looks to his left and right, trying to make sense of where he is. He could tell from the instant he smelled the smoke now barely seeping out the trains smokestack. He has had this dream many times before and didn't want to go through it again if he could help it. Cloud closes his eyes and attempts to wake up in his bed. After a while he hears Barret shouting him again.

"Cloud! What are you waiting for! We have to go now!"

Cloud opens his eye and finds himself still on the train. This is the first time he was unable to wake up from this dream and it was getting a little confusing. Finding that the only thing he could do is follow the dream until he wakes up, Cloud stands up. He checks himself and finds that unlike his previous dreams he is not wearing his SOLDIER uniform but rather his normal cloths for the past four years. (A/N The uniform from Advent Children) There is also no sign of his Buster Sword and in it's place his 'Six in One' sword, slotted into its sheath on his back. This didn't really bother Cloud as in a dream anything could happen so he might as well just go with the flow. Cloud walks up to the edge and hops off. Barret gives him a weird and questioning look when he lands.

"What you looking at?" Cloud asks the bigger, more muscular man.

"Where did you get the new get up ... and the armory on your back?" Barret asks. Cloud just looks at himself again then shrugs his shoulders and tells a lie.

"The SOLDIER uniform and Buster Sword are Shinra's. These are my own cloths and swords. Can we get on with the mission now?" Barret gives Cloud his angry look, not knowing that he has seen it hundreds of times before. He turns around and runs off to do hid appointed rounds as leader then he will met up with the others.

Cloud pulls one of his flick swords from the sheath and waits for the two guards to come down the stairs to ambush him. In one graceful swing he slices booth men through their mid section. They collapse to the floor and are slowly surrounded by their own blood. Cloud resheaths his sword and makes his way to meet the bumbling trio. Cloud exits the station and walks up behind Jessie as she is hacking into a doors security pad.

"WOW! You used to be in SOLDIER! ...Not everyday ya find one in a group like AVALANCHE." Cloud ignores Biggs like he did last time he went through this.

"SOLDIER? Aren't they the enemy? What's he doing us in AVALANCHE?" Jessie asks.

"Hold it Jessie. He WAS in SOLDIER. He quit them and now is one of us. Didn't catch your name…" Biggs says jestering to Cloud.

"... Cloud."

"Cloud, eh? I'm…" Cloud interrupts Biggs before he can finish his sentence.

"Your Biggs, the girl on the pad is Jessie and the guy over there is Wedge. We were briefed you know. Try to stay focused." Cloud now really wondered how this teams of Barret's made it this far. They are young, reckless and didn't really what's really know what's going on. Biggs looks at Cloud with an embarrassed look on his face for forgetting Clouds name. He is saved from further embarrassment by Barret returning from is rounds.

"The hell you're doin'!? I thought I told you never to move in a group! Our target's the North Mako Reactor. We'll meet on the bridge in front of it. Move out!" At Barret's order Jessie opens the doors and they make their way to the bridge.

Cloud slowly made his way to the end of the bridge, everything seemed so real unlike his other dreams, he even felt some pain when a guard managed to hit him. He was now taking this more seriously and beginning to believe that this was probably more hen just dream, that perhaps he really as here, that somehow he has been taken into the past. For whatever reason Cloud did not know but if this is all real then perhaps he can change things and even save those that he could not before.

"Yo! This your first time in a reactor?" Barret shouts as Cloud enters the security corridor.

"No. After all, I did work for Shinra, y'know." Cloud could not help but give a small smile as he remembered that he gave the exact same response last time, only this time he really had, it wasn't just a borrowed memory.

"The planet's full of Mako..." Cloud stops Barret from continuing his little speech.

"I know more about Mako and these reactors then you do. So spear me the lecture and lets move on." Cloud didn't know if it was the fact that he interrupted Barret or the fact that he knew more them him or that he showed no interest in listening in what he has to say but Barret was not happy.

"That's it! You're comin' with me from now on." Cloud rolls his eyes at Barret which doesn't go unnoticed to him but he lets it slide as they have more important things to worry about. Jessie and Biggs deciphered the door codes and opened them. Cloud, Barret and Jessie proceeds to the elevator. While going down, Barret speaks with Cloud.

"Little by little the reactor'll drain out all the life. And that'll be that."

"..."Cloud just leans back against the wall of the elevator and ignores Barret.

"The planet's dyin', Cloud!"

"..." Cloud continues to ignore Barret. Clouds complete lack of concern does not go over well with Barret but as the elevator comes to a stop, things more important then Clouds attitude came forth so they continue with their mission. Cloud and Barret moves on. Later, Cloud and Barret reached the reactor.

"When we blow this place, this ain't gonna be nothin' more than a hunka junk. Cloud, you set the bomb." Cloud starts setting up the bomb. The mysterious voice that came to him last time didn't speak to him. When Cloud finishes the bomb and arms it the alarm goes off just like he knew it would.

"Heads up, here they come!" Barret shouts while aiming his gun arm at a giant scorpion robots coming towards them. Cloud grabs his one of his jagged edge swords and waits for the Guard Scorpion to come close. When it gets close enough he jumps at the scorpion and leans at the base of it's tail and with one swipe cuts it off then slices the scorpion down the middle. Cloud jumps off and lands next to Barret just as it explodes. Barret is in a state of shock from what he just saw.

"Come on, let's get outta here." Cloud says calmly Barret just dumbly nods. Cloud and Barret start to make their way out the complex. Cloud quickly helps Jessie get her foot out the grate as Barret just ignores her to save his own hide. Jessie and Biggs decipher the door codes and open them, then they all make there way to the escape point just before the bomb goes off early. (A/N I say early because I always get there with five to six minutes to spare.)

"That should keep the planet going... at least a little longer." Barret say proudly.

"Yeah." Wedge agrees. They go quiet as no one can think of anything to say. A little time passes before Jessie breaks the silence.

"OK! Now everyone get back." Everyone moves to safe distance then Jessie blows the bomb by remote and the locked gate is blown off it's hinges. Cloud wonders why they didn't just ask him to slash it to pieces, it would have been much quieter. The group jumps out and gathers around Barret.

"All right, now let's get out of here. Rendezvous at Sector 8 Station! Split up and get on the train!" With his order given everyone but Cloud runs off. Cloud it thinking about what going to happen next, about meeting Aeris again and how, if this wasn't a dream, he could save her from death.

End Of Chapter 1

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Please be brutally honest with your reviews. 


	2. Is This The Real Life

Here's the next chapter but first I will reply to the people that reviewed to the first chapter.

**Bright Lotus: **Thanks for reading and reviewing. Now I know that some of my stories have lots of reviews but thats not the reason I write my stories. The reason they have lots of reviews is because I had a good idea. I started writing to improve my literacy and it has helped alot. I hope you will keep reading this story.

**ranma hibiki: **Thanks for reading and reviewing. It's not a prologue. If it was it would be about 200 words long.

**Squall67584:** Thanks for reading and reviewing. Hopefully this will all be written in the past tense but sometimes I wont notice where it slips into a different tense as it makes sense to me to be in that tense.

**Firedude328:** Thanks for reading and reviewing.

**Beeria:** Thanks for reading and reviewing. I hopefully will go through the whole story.

**DragonessWarrior:** Thanks for reading and reviewing.

**Ecchi-ANBU:** Thanks for reading and reviewing. Your review was the most thoughtful and the one I paid the most attention to while writing this chapter and when I get around to writing the other chapters.

**Kameko Suigami:** Thanks for reading and reviewing. You are wrong. Even if Seph didn't kill Aerith holy would still be summoned as she had already prayed for it. The only reason it took to long to take effect was because Seph was stopping it. Even though it wouldn't matter if he did, holy is not strong enough to stop meteor.

**One Winged Cetra:** Thanks for reading and reviewing.

**Crazy Little Zombie:** Thanks for reading and reviewing.

**

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Chapter 2**

**Is This The Real Life – Is It Just Fantasy**

Cloud was unsure as how to approach the current situation he was in. Going through his past is nothing unusual but being able to change it was by being there is. If he is really here and this is really happening then he could not just jump straight in and change everything how he liked. Everything he could do differently would affect how thing change, not just in the future but also now. If he were to tell Aerith what he knows she may think him crazy. If she actually believes him and he stops her from being kidnapped by Shinra then he would never meet Red and he would also be in unfamiliar territory himself.

Cloud moves on, there was no point in him contemplating on the ifs and buts. The best thing to do is to play it by ear and hope he doesn't mess things up too much. Cloud steeps out into the street just as Aerith gets knocked down but some youths in a panic. Instead of leaving Aerith to pick herself up he decides to help her. He quickly moves to her side and takes an arm, much to Aeriths surprise, and helps her up.

"Oh ... Thank you. Most people are not so kind." Aerith said as she looked Cloud over. "Excuse me but do you know what just happened?

"I'm guessing from that explosion that an extremist group just blow up a rector." Cloud said bending the truth a little. "I didn't think it was possible to grow flowers in Midgar. What with the reactors draining all the planets life force an all." Cloud stated.

Aerith seemed to ignore Clouds statement about the reactors but she did have a slightly confused look on her face before covering it up, she must of wanted to sell her flowers and get home. "Do you like them? They're only a gil."

Cloud pretended to think it over before digging into his pockets. He puled out his hand and in it as a hundred gil coin. He guessed that the other coins were the same of higher in worth as he never carried around small money.

"Umm ... here. I'll take two, you can keep the change." Cloud said and handed over the money. Aerith handed him the two flowers then examined the coin that Cloud gave her.

"Wait! This is a hundred gil! I can't take this." Aerith protested.

"I have nothing smaller and besides, I have lots of money." Aerith was going to argue this, Cloud could see it in her eyes but was saved when he heard the train whistle go off. "I'm sorry Miss but If I don't leave now I will miss my train. See you again." Cloud ran off leaving a very befuddled Aerith behind.

Cloud ran as fast as he could and completely ignored the Shinra soldiers that were calling him. Cloud jumped on the train just as it came out the tunnel.

In the storage compartment of the train, Barret, Wedge, Jessie and Biggs were all sitting quietly, basking in the glory of a job well done. But on all there minds was Clouds location and condition.

"Cloud never came. Wedge said, stating what everyone was thinking.

"Cloud …Wonder if he was killed?"

"No way! From what I saw Cloud could take out an entire army! Barret yelled at Biggs.

"Cloud ..." Jessie wonders to herself. When Cloud saved her she got a fluttering in her stomach and it wouldn't go away.

"Say, do you think Cloud's … Going to fight to the end for AVALANCHE? Biggs asks their fearless leader.

"The hell would I know!? Do I look like a mind reader?" Barret humphed.

"Hey, Barret! What about our money...?" Barret slammed his right mechanical machine gun arm on a crate. "Uh, nothing ...sorry." Wedge said a little frightened at Barrets rage.

Everyone went quiet as there was nothing else to talk about. A little time passed before the cargo door slides open and Cloud flips inside, right into Barrets face.

"Cloud!" Wedge and Biggs happily shouted.

"Cloud ..." Jessie said quietly to herself, containing her happiness that Cloud is uninjured.

"Looks like I'm a little late." Cloud said wiping his eyes free of smoke.

"You damn right, you're late! Come waltzin in here makin a big scene! Barret bellowed.

"Sorry about that. I met a girl."

"You're late because you met a girl! Shit! Havin everyone worried like that! All because you met a girl! You don't give a damn bout no one but yourself!

"Hmm……you were worried about me then? Cloud asked knowing exactly how Barret would react.

"Wha!? I'm takin' it outta your money, hot stuff!" Barret yelled. "Wake up everyone! We're movin out! Follow me!" Barret jumped over a crate and leaves. Wedge and Biggs followed leaving Cloud and Jessie alone.

"Be careful, I'll shut this." Jessie shut the door and then examined Cloud. "Oh, Cloud, your face is pitch-black." Jessie grabs her hanky and her water canteen. She soaked the hanky and with a little effort wiped the soot of Clouds face. "There you go." Jessie walked up to the crate blocking the door and turns back to Cloud. "Say, thanks for helping me back there at the Reactor. If you had not stopped I would have died back there.

Cloud gave her a little smile before reminding her of something important. "If I had not stopped to help you then we all would have died. You were the only one who has the door code." The realisation of that made Jessie laugh. Jessie jumped the crate and joined the others. Cloud followed, when he got through the door an announcement from the conductor came out the speakers.

Last train out of Sector Eight Station. Last stop is Sector Seven, Train Graveyard. Expected time of arrival is Twelve Twenty Three AM, Midgar Standard Time.

"Cloud! Over here!" Jessie called to Cloud. Cloud internally groaned, he was bored the first time he went through this and going through it a second time will be worse then fighting Sephiroth. Cloud walk slowly up to Jessie as he didn't want to go through this again but it was inevitable and he know it.

"Hey, Cloud. You want to look at this with me? It's a map of the Midgar Railing System. Let's look at it together. I'll explain it to you. I like this kinda stuff, Bombs and monitors…you know, flashy stuff. Okay, it's about to start." A 3D picture of Midgar appears on the screen. "This is a complete model of city of Midgar. It's about One, Ten Thousand to scale. The top plate is about Fifty meters above ground." Jessie said all this while pointing to all the numbers on the screen.

"Yes, very interesting." Cloud said not really paying attention.

"A main support structure holds the plate up in the centre, and there are other support structures built in each section." Jessie leaned in close to whisper some some thing that she didn't want the other passengers to hear, '_The Number One Reactor we blew up was in the northern section._' Jessie leaned back to continue her lesson to Cloud with out looking more suspicious. "Then there's Number Two, Number Three all the way up to the Number Eight Reactor. The eight Reactors provide Midgar with electricity. Each town used to have a name, but no one in Midgar remembers them. Instead of names, we refer to them by numbered sectors. That's the kind of place this is. Phew…, this is next." Jessie pushed a button and the screen changed to show something else.

"Uh huh." Was all Cloud said

"Look. This is the route this train is on. The route spirals around the main support structure. We should be coming around the centre area, right now. At each checkpoint, an ID sensor device is set up. It can check the identities and background on each and every passenger on the train by linking it up to the central data bank at Shinra Headquarters. Jessie leaned close again to whisper to Cloud again. '_Anyone could tell that we look suspicious so we're using fake ID's._' Suddenly an Alarm went off. '_Speak of the devil… That light means that we're in the ID Security Check area._ _When the lights go off, you never know what kind of creeps'll come out_. Jessie stood up straight again to finish her explanation of Midgar. "Anyhow, we're almost back now. That's a relief."

"I'll say." Cloud said walking off and sitting next to Barret.

"Look … you can see the surface now. This city don't have no day or night. If that plate weren't there … we could see the sky." Cloud tried to change the subject of the plates. But said the wrong thing.

"I could go for a pizza."

"It's cuz of that bloody pizza, that people underneath are sufferin! And the city below is full of polluted air. On topa that, the Reactor keeps drainin up all the energy!

"I know all this Barret. That's why I'm here. To help stop Shinra for what they are doing to the world and what they did to me ... for what they are doing to the world." Barret looked at Cloud confused, He has not been told of Clouds past but he knew he grew up with Tifa and that he has left Shinra but why he left he has not been told, by Cloud or Tifa. Both are very closed off about there past.

The train stops and everyone gets off. Cloud doesn't wait for the others. He walked past them and in the direction of Sector Seven Slums.

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Please be brutally honest with your reviews. 


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